First, a brief note to let you know what’s been going on.

The halcyon days of summer are abuzz, overfilled and bursting like the Japanese schoolgirl costumes donned by hefty American lasses, would-be cos-players, I saw in a TV report about about an anime and manga convention in the US. What this means for you, dear readers, is that, while far from dormant, and certainly not soaking up the haze of the lazy days of the sweltering Tokyo summer as much as we’d like, we here at TPR have not been able to stick to our usual schedule, which means TPR News has not been biweekly of late, which you’ve probably noticed.

We hope you’ve noticed and had a chance to read or listen to the other things we’ve put out recently, such as the revival of TPR Spotlight with a two-part interview with Debito Arudou, another well-received Shasetsu, this one on the “Comfort Women” Resolution in the US House of Representatives, or our running of a classic Rod Serling Zero Hour serial in the Old Time Radio category.

We’ve not been resting on our laurels.

So, we hope you’ve been missing TPR News, we hope you know it’s not going to stay away, and we hope you’re glad to see it back.

Without any further ado. . .

In this edition of TPR News: The DPJ tries to roll back a pair of LDP bills and gets set to make the road to the renewal of the MSDF’s mission in Afghanistan a bumpy one; another scandal besets the LDP; Ozawa snubs Schieffer while Koike talks sweet to Gates; the government might do more for hibakusha; the Consumer Confidence Index is down again; Detroit drops along with US car sales; shochu prices rise; TPR uncovers Japan’s connection to the DC Madam case; and more.

Politics

In another blow to the still-reeling Liberal Democratic Party, Diet members from both sides of the aisle called for the resignation of Upper House member Yutaka Kobayashi of the LDP after his accountant and two officials from local LDP chapters were arrested on charges of violating the Public Offices Election Law. While Kobayashi’s chief accountant and former publicly-paid secretary, Mika Suzuki, denied wrongdoing, the two local officials confessed.

The trio allegedly paid a total of about one million yen to as many as 20 campaign staffers for conducting activities such as pamphleteering and encouraging people on the street to go vote.

Under provisions of the Election Law, Suzuki’s conviction would lead to Kobayashi’s ouster from the House of Councillors even evidence of direct involvement on his part is not found. In a hunt for such evidence, police have begun searching Kobayashi’s offices in Kanagawa, where he was the ruling coalition’s sole victor on July 29th, when two challengers from the Democratic Party of Japan won seats in the nationwide drubbing of the LDP and New Komeito.

LDP Secretary-General Hidenao Nakagawa said he didn’t think Kobayashi had done anything wrong, but that the LDP would keep an eye on the investigation. DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama said Kobayashi should step down if the allegations were true and got a dig in on the LDP by pointing out that this was yet another example of the LDP’s money politics, an issue that played a big role in the recent election, which came on the heels of a string of political fund reporting scandals.

In a 50-minute meeting that was open to the press, DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa told US Ambassador Thomas Schieffer that Japan should not continue its logistical support of the NATO mission in Afghanistan because it was US-centered and not directly sanctioned by the UN Security Council. Ozawa went on to say,

I completely share [the Ambassador’s] view that we have to fight against terrorism or terrorists who are the perpetrators of [crimes against] peace with a resolute attitude, but how each country chooses to participate in this war against terrorism will be different in methods and measures.

As [Schieffer] may recall very well, President Bush described this war in Afghanistan as the American war against terrorism and therefore, the US started this war unilaterally without waiting for a consensus to be built in the international community.

As a contrast, Ozawa praised President George H.W. Bush’s building of an international consensus and coalition before embarking on the Gulf War in 1991.

For his part, Ambassador Schieffer pointed out UNSC resolution, in which the Security Council “calls upon the Afghanistan government, with the assistance of the international community including the International Security Assistance Force and Operation Enduring Freedom coalition . . . to continue to address the threat to the security and stability of Afghanistan posed by the Taliban, al-Qaida, other extremist groups and criminal activities . . .,” thereby mentioning the contentious operations by name and implying authorization.

Schieffer also pointed out Japan’s security concerns in the region, whence 90% of Japan’s oil comes.

While the LDP-New Komeito coalition still controls the House of Representatives, opposition from the DPJ-controlled House of Councillors could make an extension of the SDF’s mission beyond its November 1st expiry during the coming extraodrinary Diet session an uphill struggle.

Shortly after Ozawa and Schieffer’s meeting, Defense Minister Yuriko Koike met with her American counterpart Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Washington, where she said she’d work to extend the Marine Self-Defense Force’s mission. Afterwards, she accused Ozawa of repeating remarks he had made during the first Gulf War, saying, “His calendar seems to have stopped.”

Having handily won in the Upper House elections of July 29th, the DPJ flexed its muscles in the extra four-day Diet session that ended Friday by introducing two bills designed specifically to undo bills passed by the LDP.

In the first, the DPJ calls for pensions premiums to be used only for pension payments, in contrast to the bill recently rammed through the Diet by the ruling coalition, which would allow premiums to be used for other purposes, such as pension-related publicity, as well.

In the second, the DPJ joined with fellow opposition parties the Social Democratic Party and the People’s New Party to call for a delay in the privatization of the Post Office, which is set to begin on October 1st. The People’s New Party was founded in 2005 by LDP “rebels” kicked out of the party for their opposition to then-Prime Minister Koizumi’s postal privatization bill around which the September 2005 snap election was centered.

Both bills will be debated and voted on in the Fall’s extraordinary Diet session.

The DPJ’s effect on the House of Councillors is showing, with support for Prime Minister Abe’s cherished constitutional reform at its lowest since in the Upper House since 2003. A joint Asahi Shimbun/ University of Tokyo poll conducted from May to July showed only 53% of current Upper House members in favor of constitutional reform, far lower than the two-thirds necessary in both houses to pass an amendment. Only 48% of freshman legislators supported reform and a mere 24% of all Upper House members supported revision of Article 9, whereas 54% were opposed.

Even within Abe’s own LDP, some dissent is showing, with one senior LDP member saying, “He’s got his priorities wrong. (An amendment) is not what the public wants now.”

The trouble for Abe is that he vowed to hold a referendum in 2010, when all of those just elected or reelected to the House of Councillors would be only halfway through their six-year terms.

On a brighter note for the Prime Minister, those LDP members who kept or won seats seem to share his zeal for change, with 91% saying they supported change and 67% of New Komeito members concurring.

As the DPJ took control of the House of Councillors, it named Satsuki Eda the first-ever non-LDP president of the Upper House and Takeo Nishioka chairman of the rules and administration committee.

As he prepares to step down from his position as LDP Secretary-General, Hidenao Nakagawa, looking to blame someone other than the LDP for the LDP’s loss on July 29th, said, “[The defeat occurred] because we have not been able to achieve our target for nominal gross domestic product growth, and the BOJ’s monetary policy may be responsible for that.”

This is the same Nakagawa who was seen walking out of a BOJ policy meeting in January, not an unusual occurrence, and who says politicians don’t put pressure on the BOJ. Raise your hand if you believe him and, you know the drill, hit yourself for being stupid.

While cynics called it a ploy to shore up public support after his LDP’s crushing defeat on July 29th, some hibakusha, atomic bomb survivors, were pleased to hear Prime Minister Abe make a promise, in a meeting coinciding with the 62nd anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, that his government would review the criteria by which hibakusha are deemed merely survivors or victims of radiation-related illness.

Currently, there are approximately 250,000 officially recognized survivors of the bombings, of whom only 2,200 receive monthly medical benefits worth ￥137,840. The main criterion used to make the determination between survivor and radiation-sickness-suffering survivor has been distance from the hypocenter of the blasts at the time - a stance that has led to decades of legal battles, reevaluations, overturned legal decisions, protests, and other frustrations for hibakusha.

Sunao Tsuboi, president of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, who met with Abe on Sunday, described the meeting, in which Abe unexpectedly and apparently without preparation made his promise, as “extremely meaningful,” adding, “I think we were able to make one or even two steps forward.”

Business and the Economy

On Friday, the Cabinet Office’s monthly Consumer Confidence Index was released and had some more bad news for Japan’s economy. Again, all five indicators measured by the survey were down and all were below 50, which means, in short, that people have a negative view of that particular index, for example, desire to buy durable goods.

The Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 44.4, its lowest level since December 2004. It has not risen above 50 since it hit 50.3 in the second quarter of 1990. As just over half of Japan’s GDP is represented by consumer spending, consistently low consumer confidence does not bode well for economic growth.

Despite a dropoff in machinery orders and a 2.7% increase in coal and oil prices compared with July of last year, orders of machine tools were up 18.2%. US car sales hit their lowest mark in ine years in June, which could be bad for Japan’s automakers, but for the fact that Detroit’s Big Three saw their US market share drop below 50% for the first time ever.

As troubles continue at Comsn, provider of nursing services to the 4,515 residents of its 213 nursing homes and 75,406 more people through its network of 1,268 care worker dispatch bases throughout Japan under Goodwill Group Inc., the company, whose license to provide such care was revoked after it was discovered that it had obtained many of its licenses by fraudulently inflating the number of licensed professionals on its staff, is considering applications by 1,012 potential buyers of its at-home care businesses and is expected to choose successful applicants by mid-September.

In some areas, Comsn’s forced withdrawal from the industry has left its customers without much-needed services. Throughout Japan, those customers and their relatives have expressed frustration at not getting all the information they need from meetings hosted by Comsn, at which, to the ire of many in attendance, top executives have not been present to apologize in person or take questions directly.

Society

Phillippe Jamet, leader of the International Atomic Energy Agency team inspecting the damaged Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, said the team would issue a draft report on its findings to the government and TEPCo Friday. In addition, TEPCo said copies of the report would go to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission. Jamet also said it would be some time before the report could be shown to IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei in Vienna and released publicly.

The report focuses on whether or not the reactors shut down and contained fission products suitably at the time of the earthquake on July 16th and says that it may well be a year or more before the plant is back on line, but that the IAEA team discovered no leakage of radioactive materials during its four-day investigation.

On Wednesday, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko paid a one-day visit to the quake-damaged area, where many of those made homeless by the quake or unable to take care of themselves remain in crowded gymnasiums in front of electric fans they hope will take the edge off the brutal summer heat. The Imperial couple kept their visit short, so as not to interfere with ongoing relief and reconstruction efforts, and doled out useful advice such as, “Please try your best to keep your spirits up,” and “Hot days will continue, so take care of yourself.”

TPR’s own Ken Worsley did a bit of good, basic, fundamental journalism and uncovered a Japanese connection to the Deborah Jeane Palfrey “DC Madam” case. Let’s just say that the affinity for big brands extends to the recreation or entertainment activities of Japanese government officials overseas.

I’m sure a number of readers would like to toast Ken with one of his favorites - satsuma shochu. Well, your appreciation will be even more dear as shochu prices get set to rise by 100 yen per sho (1.8 liter bottle) to cover expenses incurred by a ban on the dumping of lees into the ocean or over fields as fertilizer. Distillers in Kagoshima, home to a larger number of shochu distilleries than anywhere else in Japan, have had to either pay high recycling and disposal fees or, in the case of larger distillers, build their own processing plants. A carryover effect of the dumping ban is that producers of satsumaimo, sweet potatoes, are facing increased production costs due to the looming derth of cheap fertilizer.

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